Hard Case 12: Climate of Chaos (John Harding)

by Bernard Lee DeLeo

  Kade turned in my arms, gripping my shoulders as I knelt with him. “I will not fear, Dad! I trust you. I loved Mom Julie… but she was scared… all the time! I hated it! I…I want people like Carl to be scared. You made Carl scared. Carl thought… he would die. He’s bad. Carl should fear… not us!”

  Thank you… God… in heaven for this kid. I pledge to take care of him, his mom and our families until death intercedes. I pushed Kade to arms-length. “We’ll make a pact… a promise for all time. Trust me to always face the fear with you. You must promise to never hide threats from me.”

  Kade smiled. “Someone scaring me… I call for my dad… until I find a way to become you. Then… I fix things.”

  Damn… it’s what Nick feared or recognized, the Monster gene could be contagious as well as in the DNA. I hugged Kade to me. “Always question everything you don’t understand. You never need fear anything about the way Lora, Al or I will react. Tell us the truth. We will make it all right.”

  “What about… you know… them taking me when you’re not around?”

  Well, dimwit… you asked for that. “The rules of captivity… being taken… tell your takers everything they want to know… everything, Kade. Hold nothing back about anything. Never lie to takers, Kade. They have the power to find out anything you know. It’s not like in the movies. It gives you time to make an escape plan and pick your best chance.”

  Little Batman gripped my hand. “Did… did this ever happen?”

  I hesitated to lie. Yeah… big brave Recon… painting himself in a corner with the truth, trying to urge Kade to react the only way possible, once an enemy has you. Others would laugh at telling any of this to an almost four-year-old. When you’re a killer, leading other killers, acting like we’re in The Godfather movie, would have dangerous consequences in the future.

  “People took Mom Lora and sister Alice as a way to make me do what they wanted. They knew to tell the people everything until I could reach them. Surviving is the most important point… no matter what. Holding information back from people who will torture you with imagination, ends in the same way as telling them everything. You will eventually tell them everything.”

  Kade shook me… or tried to. “What… what happened?”

  “Mom Lora and Al told their takers everything when asked until I could get there.”

  Kade let me go and grinned. Yeah… the monster peeked out. “Too bad Captain Hook wasn’t around then, huh, Dad?”

  “The takers met me and your Aunt Lynn. Captain Hook doesn’t hold a candle to your Aunt Lynn. She is the most dangerous woman on earth.”

  “I’ve seen people die, Dad. I will remember everything you say. I’m glad you don’t lie to me. I don’t want that.” Kade straightened. “I won’t let them take me though. I’ve been taken before.”

  The killer surfaced once against all logic. “Go with them, son. Answer any thing they ask. Follow the takers orders without hesitation. Hesitation makes the takers think you’re holding something back. I will find you, and I will bring hell on earth with me when I do.”

  The young Batman pumped his fist. “I can do that! Knowing… wait… what if they kill you?”

  I grinned, thinking of the Monsters and Unholies. “You and I have Monsters and Unholies who will find you no matter what happens to me. I doubt there are enough people on earth to prevent our crews from finding you… or stop them once they do. Let’s go join the party at Uncle Nick’s house. He plays piano and sings.”

  “Cool! Do you sing, Dad?”

  “I sing like a frog.”

  Yeah… Kade liked that answer.

  * * *

  We arrived at Nick’s house, only to have Lora and Al run out to open the gate and escort us in, fussing over our little Batman all the way inside the house with only a look of disgust for me. The rest of the gang was waiting for us there with big smiles. It appeared Kade and I must have been featured on YouTube already. Jafar ended all speculation.

  “You know I have all of us tracked on the internet, John. The videos of you pulling Carl through the window and threatening to break his neck went viral faster than Kabong’s dreaded cat video competition.”

  “I didn’t ask the creep to harass us, right, Kade?”

  “Yep. That Carl guy did it. I don’t think he will ever do that again. People wanted pictures with us. I got to do my Batman poses.” To illustrate, he went through his whole Repertoire of angry Batman poses, arousing much amusement.

  Kade immediately bonded with our Monster dogs, Naji, Tonto and Deke. The kids went with the dogs to Nick’s youth fun room. It contained a little of everything. Quinn toddled after them, still wearing his great white shark costume, Mia and Clint Jr stayed unsteadily with them. Nick handed me my favorite drink duo.

  “With the looks Lora gave you, I thought maybe you could use these.”

  I spotted Lora on her way into the youth room to watch out for Kade. “You’d think I threw Kade into Carl’s car the way Al and Lora acted. They scrambled out to the gate. If I hadn’t been holding Kade’s hand, they would have probably locked me outside.”

  “They sure have taken to Kade in a big way.”

  “Hey… Muerto… enough with the rehash of Dark Lord escapades.” Lynn grabbed his arm. “Everyone wants to dance. You need to practice for the celebration party after Flo and Dev get elected. It’s going to be a blast. Can Rachel sing along with you on anymore of those opera tunes?”

  Nick waved at me and shrugged. “She knows a couple more. Are Jonas and Amara still honeymooning?”

  I followed them into the entertainment room.

  “Are you kidding? They’re like a couple of wild animals. We left them to cool off in Vegas. We’ll be looking after Clint Jr and cleaning the house… at least Clint will be cleaning the house.” Lynn glanced over her shoulder while leading Nick to the piano. “Were you actually intending to break Carl’s neck?”

  “I wanted to snatch his throat, but I didn’t want Kade to be traumatized.”

  “Ah… that’s so sweet.”

  * * *

  Election night arrived. We prevented the usual corruption by having ICE agents in all suspected polling places, where in the past they had more Democrat votes than registered voters of either party. The names Flo garnered to impeach Drowne also volunteered for poll duty, checking names and IDs. Because of the Drowne corruption, the poll volunteers requested a formal ID but could not force the issue. However, anyone refusing to produce a valid ID had their picture taken. Many walked away. In the end, both our candidates won by landslides.

  Drowne tried to crash the party with Lewsome at his side. Nick and I stopped them at the door.

  “This is a private celebration,” I told them. “Go away peacefully.”

  The newly elected Governor joined us at the door. “Have you come to concede, Lewsome? If you have, spit it out and leave. Drowne… I want you out of the mansion tomorrow, or I will have you evicted.”

  “How dare you? I should get as much time as I need!”

  “I will not allow a crook like you to live one more day in the Governor’s Mansion. We know now how the corrupt parole board members let you and Lewsome put in recommendations, freeing Cobus Whitehead, at the behest of Andria Assio-Warez. You two idiots also did a cloakroom deal with the judge who released Whitehead after he committed a DUI no more than twenty-four hours after being released from prison.”

  Flo smiled. “You’re damn lucky we haven’t found Whitehead. If he ever reappears, I will have you on attempted murder charges. Jafar Kensington, one of our brightest financial, forensics men, uncovered the money and influence trail, enough that if you aren’t out of the mansion by tomorrow evening, I will have you and Lewsome arrested. Heed the warning, Drowne. You will not get a second chance. I have Deputy US Marshal McCarty here, and the new Assistant District Attorney gave him a warrant for your arrests if the two of you do not disappear back into the leftist rathole you crawled out of.”

  Oh… it was beautiful. I wa
tched every sentence slam into them like a punch in the gut. Nick produced the warrants for them to see, complete with Nick listed as arresting officer. “You resign tomorrow, Lewsome. I know you could stay until January. That will not be necessary, unless you want to serve out your Lieutenant Governor’s position from a prison cell.”

  Drowne grabbed his cohort. “We need to get out of here… now.”

  “Don’t bother touching your offices,” Flo told them. “I attained a search and seizure warrant for everything in the offices. I ordered 24/7 guarded lockdown. The shredders will not be running all night as I can see in your faces would have been the case. Well… bye.”

  Those two meatheads ran for it. They thought it would be different at the mansion. “Wait until they get to Sacramento and learn what we’ve already confiscated there by court order. Nick has it all from that quarter.”

  “John’s right,” Nick agreed. “We waited until only the guards were in position before serving the warrant early this morning while Drowne and Lewsome spent the day flitting around to different parts of the state, trying to line up their corrupt political machines from one end of California to the other. It didn’t work, so they came here to threaten us with protesting the election. Heh… heh.”

  “John… you don’t think that Cobus guy could be found, do you?” Flo asked.

  Need to know information – only me and the Monsters, Unholies, and of course, Captain Hook, know where Cobus found a last resting spot. “Nope. I’m betting Cobus will be even more difficult to find than Chicago Dox, the Rino who got trounced along with Lewsome. You can bet he headed for the tall grass. That sack of shit didn’t believe in anything.”

  “Just as well,” Flo replied. “I bet you guys have plans for the bug-eyed Bolshevik. God in heaven… please give me the chance to call Assio-Warez that, at least once to her dullard face.”

  “Enjoy the win, Flo,” I urged. “We’ll start the festivities soon. It was a huge win for California… the kind that usually only happens in fiction.”

  “Not much celebrating for me, I’m afraid. I want to be up, bright and early. Nick’s giving me a ride on his helicopter tomorrow morning, arrest warrants in hand. I plan to oversee those weasels’ flight from prosecution. That thieving swine, Drowne, will not leave the mansion with much more than the clothes on his back. I want all their moving vans searched. I have an inventory list of everything belonging to the state. If I find anything in those vans he stole, Nick will take him down. We already know he stole billions from California’s citizens.”

  “Understood,” I replied. “Despite Drowne and Lewsome exiting right now, did you have ideas to move on something in particular, Flo?”

  “I plan to nail Drowne’s ass to the wall for that bullet-train fiasco he created to steal a fortune. Sixty-four billion dollars for a stupid train you can bypass easily and cheaply taking an airliner round trip. It only costs five billion for a Mexico border wall, protecting all citizens of the USA from criminal alien invasion, rapists, drug and human traffickers, murderous gangs, and far-reaching entitlements in hundreds of billions of dollars, taxpayers shell out to illegal aliens.”

  Flo was the best! “We’re with you all the way to the Whitehouse eventually. Tommy and Jess will be your personal bodyguards until we can find pros we can trust. We have everything of their holdings taken care of, including yours, while in Sacramento. Laredo and I will alternate flying you three back to the Bay any time you want at our expense. That will shut the lefty’s mouths. Our strike teams will be ready for anything happening out of the ordinary across the state. Dev will consolidate all the gains you’ve made as Mayor.”

  Flo hugged me. “This will be an adventure of a lifetime, resurrecting this state. The Democrats still control the Legislature. My fight will be with them. One thing on my side is the laws are still on the books, bypassing anything the Legislature can do. I have an entire list of laws which will be enforced across the state, even if I need to call out the National Guard.”

  “For tomorrow, I will be going with Clint and Lynn, along with Nick and his Unholies. Tommy and Jess will be with you every step of the way.”

  “I plan on invading the Legislature tomorrow and put them on notice. There will be no more playing footsies with illegal aliens and their backers. Our referendum stripping away entitlements passed tonight by a wide margin. That, and the enforcement of anti-vagrancy laws will change the face of California.”

  Flo hesitated. “I hope I’m not boring you guys, but the Legislature will vote for everything under the sun to derail my plan. I will veto everything and send it to the people. From now on the sacred homeless will be called what they are: vagrants. We will get the children and veterans on the street help first. While doing so, we will put the druggies, alcoholics, and professional homeless to work hauling their garbage and cleaning the streets. Illegal immigration entitlements costs California over thirty billion dollars a year. We can use that money to build self-contained communities built on the template you guys created the City of Hope with. It will house, discipline, and end vagrancy in California, cut crime, and a thousand other problems these wretches visit every day on hardworking citizens.”

  “I don’t know about John, but you’re not boring me,” Nick said. “I want a part in this all the way. I better go get this show on the road before Cruella Deville arrives to take me at gunpoint.”

  “I heard Carl Logan wants to sue you in court for defamation and assault,” Flo said as Nick left to start the entertainment. “Do you think he has a chance of winning?”

  “Lora found us a lawyer team from Walnut Creek who will be handling all our legal needs. They’re fans of us and you. They already contacted Logan with the video of his threats and past problems harassing me and my family. We had them all on video. The lawyer’s office called and told me Carl nearly crapped his pants, when he saw our evidence. He was warned we will countersue for millions… and win if he pulls any kind of stunt in court.”

  “That is good news. Do you have any plans for the bug-eyed Bolshevik?”

  “Not that I can share with you, Flo. We do intend to make sure she doesn’t send killers after us anymore. I know she takes office in January. We still have some time to add more hard evidence on her involvement in the Cobus Whitehead release.”

  “I’m glad you’re going to Sacramento with me tomorrow.”

  “So, am I, Governor.”

  Chapter Seven

  The Rule of Law

  We came in full MIB attire while escorting Flo around Sacramento. Drowne and Lewsome’s people learned we took everything incriminating away, protested and left after we checked the stuff they loaded. When Flo addressed the Legislature with her plans for California and enforcing the laws of the land, Flo was ready for the traitors elected by gooney-bird liberals and corrupt elections. The first question, naturally, regarded her immediate suspension of all entitlements to illegal aliens.

  “What right have you to strip benefits from migrant dreamers?”

  Flo chuckled at the self-righteous woman from District 43 in Los Angeles, Racine Atters. “What right do you have to steal money from American citizens and give it to illegal aliens? Just because you can’t get elected unless illegal aliens and the dead are voting, doesn’t mean other Americans need to pay for your bogus voters.”

  Racine gasped, stomping in place, with mouth open in slack-jawed rage. “You… you know nothing about my District!”

  “I know District 43 is one of the worst in California and you live outside of it in a multi-million-dollar mansion. I wonder how in the world you managed that on your salary from the assembly. I’ve heard you, giving your race-baiting speeches, blaming everyone but yourself for problems there. Once I order the enforcement of the state’s vagrancy laws and end entitlements to illegal aliens, your district will begin looking like it once did before you liberal whackos destroyed it.”

  Atters tried to put a sentence together, blubbered for a moment, and then stalked out of the Legislature. Ano
ther assembly member, from the 15th District, Bunny Quicks, asked a question proving these people, elected to office, had no clue what they were doing.

  “What vagrancy law, Governor. You’re not a dictator. You can’t just make up a law to suit your purpose. The homeless can’t be discriminated against simply because they have fallen on hard times.”

  Flo listened with a big smile because she knew about all these people. “I’m not surprised you don’t know anything about California Penal Code 647. Read it and learn it. Twenty percent of vagrants in the United States live in California, polluting our cities, and preying on our working citizens. I will make sure Penal Code 647 is enforced throughout our state. Once we save the over thirty-billion-dollars stolen from taxpayers and given to illegal immigrants, self-contained communities will be established to help vagrants who want to be helped, and a one-way ticket out of the state for vagrants who don’t want to be helped. Even one of the cities in your district, voted one of the ten most dangerous in the state, Emeryville, will be helped, despite your so far useless representation of the citizens there.”

  Bunny was not happy with that rebuke. “It’s very easy to insult our legislators with rhetoric and demean the office of Governor.”

  “The truth hurts. I was elected to enforce the laws of the state. I will do so, using the laws we have on the books. No one owns me. I have done extensive research into this legislature’s most prominent contributors to both Democrats and Republicans. I took no money from New World Order puppet-masters. No one will be pulling my strings. If-”

  It happened in a flash as a uniformed state highway patrolman strolled into the legislature, drew his weapon and fired. I made it in front of Flo, a split second before taking two rounds center mass, ruining my MIB suit, with the slugs ending their flight in my Kevlar vest underneath. The assassin would have fired more, but Clint and Nick drew and fired, striking the fake patrolman with center mass kill shots, and Nick striking the man in the head as the attacker dropped backwards. I could tell as I caught my breath, the assassin wore armor too, but the headshot made that a moot point.